Claim. SMM teaches that even God — the absolute, omniscient, omnipotent being — absolutely obeys true love; love is the one standard to which God submits, and only this self-submission qualifies Him to ask the same of humans.
Elaboration. This is the most theologically distinctive claim in CSG Book 1, Chapter 1: “However all-knowing and all-powerful God may be, He absolutely obeys true love” (5.3.-even-god-is-absolutely-obedient-to-love, 211-75, 1990.12.29). And the explicit pedagogical reason: “If God were to tell His sons and daughters to absolutely obey true love without doing it Himself, would it make sense? God, who occupies true love, would become a dictator” (ibid, 211-84, 1990.12.29).
Three consequences cascade. Ontologically, love is in some sense higher than God’s other attributes (“more than His absoluteness, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence,” 207-261, 1990.11.11). Pedagogically, God’s authority is grounded in His own modeling, not bare command. Ethically, the love God obeys is the “love that seeks to serve,” not the love that seeks to be served (218-263, 1991.8.19).
The position is a sharp critique of voluntarist accounts: “Modern theology is doomed because it says that since God is all-knowing and all-powerful, He can also love as He pleases” (209-81, 1990.11.27).
See also. csg-gods-omnipotence-operates-within-principle, csg-god-cannot-love-without-a-partner